The Battles He Chose
by AproposOfNothing
Summary: They say pick your battles and we do. We all choose what we are going to fight for in this life.  Elliot chose to fight the everyday evil of rape and child abuse. WARNING: Really Dirty Language.
1. Chapter 1

_Disclaimer_: I'm sure you know the drill by now

_Summary:_ This is why Elliot chose to fight for the victims. Starts the first time Elliot thought of joining SVU. Set a while after the Gulf War, early 90's.

_Credits_: Plot is based on the song Luka by Susanne Vega. It is a song about an abused child. I'm just saying to give credit where credit is due. If you can read fan fiction I'm sure that you can google the lyrics, because I don't like writing song fics. Also I need to credit Google's amazing maps for giving me the marvelous ability to walk around Manhattan from the comfort of my dorm room.

_A little background, for those of you, who like me, cannot remember the early 90's_: This should be about 9-7 years before Elliot joined Special Victims. He would be in his early 20's by my estimation, with a pregnant wife and two daughters, one a preschool aged child, and toddler at home. Elliot was in the Gulf War, which lasted from August 2, 1990 to March 3rd, 1991. So I'm assuming that right after that he got out of the Marines and went to college part time and started work as a police officer.

**1. (If you hear) Something Late at Night**

"They only hit until you cry and after that you don't ask why. You just don't argue anymore" Susanne Vega

Here I am with Pete, taking our break in a late night diner on the outskirts of Alphabet City. It's a tough part of town, so we (the police I mean) spend a lot of time there, trying to keep the peace, catch criminals, and most of all we try stay alive so we can go home to our families.

Not so different from Desert Storm. Boredom punctuated by danger and terror. But that's a cliché.

"Hey, Officer Stabler, time to stop pondering the meaning of life. Get your head in the game. We got a call."

Guess Pete had been talking for a bit, and I had to wonder how I had missed the annoying crackling static on our radios. "_This is dispatch calling squad car 732 Charlie. Are you there?" _

"We read you dispatch. Over." Pete was already answering the radio as he laid bills on the table and stood up with me to walk back to the squad car.

"_We have a complaint of domestic violence near your location. 390 East 10__th__ Street on the North West corner of Avenue C and 10__th__Street; Apartment 2A. Complaint came from tenant of 1A. Over."_

Hearing this on the radio as we get into the car gets my adrenaline pumping and jolts me out of my reverie. Here's something going down, a problem that we can solve. I reach to my radio and after confirming the address and apartment number as Pete starts the car I say to dispatch, "We read you and we are on our way."


	2. Chapter 2

_Disclaimer_: I'm sure you know the drill by now

_Summary:_ This is why Elliot chose to fight for the victims. Starts the first time Elliot thought of joining SVU. Set a while after the Gulf War, early 90's.

_Author's Notes_: I said I wouldn't update...but the first chapter was too short anyways..just please someone give me a little review and tell me what you think. Also, I might be off on the timeline with Elliot joining the NYPD, but I tried my best to figure it out.

* * *

**(Some kind of trouble; Some kind of Fight) **

We arrive on the scene at 10:43 pm. There are lights on in the second and first floors of the apartment building. We can hear the ruckus from down here. A man and woman yelling. Pete parks the squad car with no regard for tow zones and we are out of the car and running up the stairs of the dingy apartment building, our guns in hand but pointed at the ground.

"Police!" I yell as I kick down the door.

There's the man and the woman. He is yanking on her hair and has her on her knees in front of him. She has a black eye and split lip, with strangulation marks around her neck. But my gun is trained on him not her. He's the one I have to worry about.

He yanks her off the ground and uses her as a shield as he roars at the top of his lungs, "Look what you did you cunt! You got the fucking cops involved with your mother fucking screaming. I'm going to fucking kill you."

"He lunges to the kitchen counter nearby and grabs a knife. Fuck.

He's holding the knife to her throat, but he didn't hurt her right away. He knows that she is his only leverage.

"Now let's calm down," I say. My voice is as even and measured as I can make it under these circumstances. "What's your name?"

He glances from me to Pete and back. He is pissed as hell, and I can smell the alachol on him from where I am standing, but he doesn't seem insane. After a moment he answers. "Alan, my name is Alan, and this whore bitch belongs to me."

I know that Pete is right behind me, his gun in hand and pointed over my shoulder at the perp, so I lower my weapon and put it in my holster. I keep my body posture non-threatening as I carefully move closer to the perp and vic, being careful not to block Pete's shot at the man. "Look, Alan, if you kill the girl, you end up in jail for a long time. You don't want that, do you? You drop the knife and no one is hurt. We can make a deal. No jail."

"Bastard. Your lying," he spat. But his body posture is less threatening. His hands are shaking He's thinking about the consequences of killing her, and he wants to get out of this.

"Think, Alan. Don't jam yourself up anymore than you already have."

He hesitates and lowers the knife. The woman pushes our of his grasp and runs to Pete while I tackle and cuff Alan. The knife flies out his hand and after a few moments I have him lying on his stomach with his hands cuffed behind his back.

Pcte radios dispatch for a bus and some backup. The woman, though crying hysterically, says through her sobs, "Where's my daughter? Where is she?"


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: **Thanks to weaver61 and EnforcerandAccuserfan for reviewing. I will try to keep the chapters coming every two days or so, but I won't be able to post over the weekend.

Oh, and tell me if you think my rhyming in the chapter titles is stupid...I'm not really good at coming up with names for things I write

* * *

**3. A lost kid, and new things Elliot did**

Pete kneels beside the wailing woman. In a gentle voice he says, "What's your name?"

"Talia. My names is Talia Kandibowitz."

"Talia, are you married to Alan?"

"Yes, he's my husband. But Luka isn't his daughter."

"Look, ma'am, I really want to help you find your daughter. So I need you to tell me what happened. What is her name, how old is she, and when did you last see her?"

"She…her name is Luka," she gasps. "I just came home from work, and she wasn't in the apartment and Alan was drinking. I asked him where she was, and he just started arguing with my. He said that she ran away. Oh my god, she's only eight. She's only eight." She was sobbing again.

"We'll find her," says Pete. Sirens are in the distance and getting closer. Our back up will be here soon. Then we can start searching for the girl. Hopefully she just ran far enough to get away from Alan.

I've still got my gun pointed at Alan to make sure he doesn't try anything. This isn't the ideal situation for an interrogation, but I need find that girl.

"Alan, hey Alan I need you to tell me where that girl is, and it would go a long way with the DA's office if you would cooperate."

"Fuck you."

Bastard. Hurting this woman and her child. I briefly think of Alan's constitutional rights. Well fuck that, I'm tired of doing things by the book. I tried the carrot; now it's time for the stick.

I step on his back, and put my weight where I know it will hurt. "I hate to do this Alan, but resisting arrest is a very serious offense. And so is abuse." He's gasping for air now. "Tell me what happened to the girl. Tell me where she is."

"Please," he sputters, "please stop" I take some of my weight off of him. "I don't know where that little brat went. Stupid girl wouldn't listen. I gave her what she had coming. But the damn kid got away from me. Climbed out the window onto the fire escape. I don't know where she went from there."

He seems like he's telling the truth, and back-up is coming so I need to leave it be. Pete will cover my back, but I don't want to ask a fellow officer to lie for me.

* * *

Backup comes. Three other squad cars, and an ambulance.. They took Alan down and locked him in a squad car for now. Talia is taken to the hospital. Pete and I have been briefed our CO by way of phone. And now we need to appraise everyone of the situation so we can start looking for the girl.

I look around the apartment. It is filthy. In the common area beer and liqueur bottles litter the floor which is covered in stains and looks as if it hasn't been cleaned in a year. The ugly green paint on the wall is peeling. I go to what I presume to be Luka's room. It is small. There is a futon mattress with a blanket, a few clothes in a neat pile on the floor, and tattered teddy-bear. The parents room is a bit less sparse, but for the most part the place is a dump – but it is what I would expect with a working mother and an abusive alcoholic stepfather.

The other officers congregate in the living room. I expected for Pete to tell the other's what's going down, but instead he gestures that I should. I've never briefed a bunch of officers before, but what the hell, it isn't rocket science.

"Listen up people! We have a missing eight year old female, Caucasian, about 4'6" according to her mother. She has brown eyes and hair." I take the picture of Luka that I got from Talia and pass it around. "Her name is Luka Kandibowitz. She climbed out onto the fire escape to get away from her abusive step-father. She could have gone up to the roof from there, or down to the ground, so she could be anywhere in the neighborhood by now – but it seems likely that she would stay near her home, since it doesn't seem that she was intending on running away. I say we search the building's roof, stairwells and furnace room first, then spread out in different directions from there."


End file.
